Dresses, dresses and more dresses. A mountain of gemstones with a snow-cap of dresses; their opalescent shine in perfect harmony to the tranquil night. The soft sensations of her hooves skating across the sequined fabric as she basked in the glint of the eyes of the handsome prince beside her; never fading in the slightest. Her movements were gentle and sophisticated as the two lovers danced under the moonlight; hooves around their partner’s neck. The…
Rarity awoke suddenly; her well-kept eyelids shooting up. She felt odd that she had roused so abruptly almost like somepony had just switched her sleep mode off. Normally for the unicorn and most other ponies, the feeling of sleep didn’t wear off immediately but this morning without even a stir she felt fully awake. It almost seemed unnatural and just then as if someone had popped the idea into her head her hooves began to twitch. No sooner had she woken up that her legs were already out of the bed covers and Rarity had leapt to her hooves, standing beside the bed. She took a glance at the alarm clock which had been set to wake her up in two hours’ time as it was a Sunday and the fashionista preferred to have a long lie since her boutique never received business on Sundays. Why had she been so eager to wake up then?
Rarity moaned as her head pounded for the longing of more sleep. She threw her hooves all over the place in annoyance and directly after questioned why she did so. The unicorn began to feel anxious as to what was happening this morning and proceeded to have a look around her room. Everything was as it should be. The window was left open the way she had left it last night so that the optimum gust of wind would blow into the room to greet her as she rose from slumber. None of her make-up items were out of place since she had tidied them up after her dear sister, Sweetie Belle, decided to get adventurous with the lipstick. She giggled at the thought although she had been pretty mad at the time. But there was nothing to suggest that anything had happened funnily yet thankfully enough.
Rarity was still stood near the bed and found it strange that she hadn’t moved an inch since getting up; almost as if she was waiting for something. She noticed that in the corner of the room were the dresses for the upcoming Grand Galloping Gala she was working on last night and so she started to walk over to check her patterns hadn’t crossed badly anywhere. But a moment later, the idea was taken from her head and she stopped, looking puzzled. Then it was as though the shower was beckoning her so she started towards the door and left the room. Maybe she assumed nothing would be wrong with them after all. She thought suspiciously about that during her shower.
“I don’t care if you need to use the bathroom! You can’t be in here while I am taking a shower!”
Sweetie Belle had just bolted into the room and attempted to use the toilet but on hearing her enter, the shocked sister pulled back the shower drapes to tell Sweetie Belle to get lost. The smaller unicorn was jumping up and down, pleading with her older sister to use the toilet. Rarity simply lifted her head and sternly told her desperate sister to wait outside until she was finished. Sweetie Belle scampered out of the room, having no time to say something in retaliation. Rarity resumed her shower.
Having dried herself off and feeling more refreshed, Rarity’s mind had already thought of the next thing to do – have breakfast. She opened the door to find a rather ripe Sweetie Belle sobbing uncontrollably on the floor; drenched from the puddle she was lying in. She had appeared to have wet herself.
Rarity moved to comfort her sister but found that her legs were simply walking around the upset filly and her mind was still focused on the fridge downstairs. Hmm…perhaps she needn’t get involved. Rarity was just about to make her way downstairs when she felt the idea of breakfast go from her mind quite like the thought of the dresses earlier and soon stopped. She then got a sensation to go and cheer up Sweetie Belle and retraced her steps back to her sister’s side. Perhaps she changed her mind?
The elder unicorn put a hoof on the crying filly’s shoulder and spoke softly to her.
“Sweetie Belle, are you alright? I apologise profusely about denying you to use the toilet; I didn’t realise you needed to go this bad.”
The younger sister looked up at her big sister’s worried expression, wiping her excess snot away from her face. “Sniff…sniff…yeah, I’m OK….sniff…”
“You had best wash up before anyone sees you, dear,” continued Rarity, gesturing towards the bathroom.
“Sniff…Okay…” said Sweetie Belle in a happier tone. She then got up slowly and stood there for a while.
The two sisters stood facing each other for a silent moment. Rarity wasn’t sure what to think. She had just told Sweetie Belle to take a shower and there she stood, not doing anything. Even stranger was that she herself had no urge to tell Sweetie Belle to go about doing it. The thought of the fridge had suddenly come back into her mind and she proceeded to return to her original task of making breakfast. Her sister must have been psychic though because just as Rarity began to move away, Sweetie Belle headed to the bathroom. Even though the majority of her body was on automatic drive, in her mind Rarity was freaking out.
The white unicorn descended down the stairs and entered the kitchen. The morning sun shone through the window and lit up the room, casting its light on the mahogany table to await the first feast of the day. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary here either; decoratively speaking of course when it came to her. Rarity wandered over to the fridge and opened it. There was nothing in it. Rarity couldn’t put her hoof on it but she swore she had heard just now some sound taunting her. Her stomach gurgled to remind her of the more important fact and she grunted at the empty fridge. How could they be out of food? Then again, when was the last time she had gone out to the store to get groceries? Her recent clients’ dresses had kept her very busy the last week and it must have slipped her mind to fill the draining fridge. Well, it seemed a trip to the market was in order.
Rarity exited the kitchen and picked her bag up from the living room table before going out the front door and out into Ponyville. That felt like the most natural thing that she had done all morning, the unicorn thought gladly.
The unicorn’s mouth formed into a mischievous grin as her view came over a different household.
The light around the quaint home in the clouds intensified as if somepony had turned on the lights. A mysterious feeling came over the rainbow haired pegasus. She brushed it off. The Daring Do novel she was reading for the fifteenth time still sometimes sent shivers down her spine. She continued reading.
“And the day had been saved yet again, thanks to-” An eruption of snoring from the orange filly sleeping comfortably beside her interrupted Rainbow Dash’s trail of thought. She shifted her gaze from the book to look at Scootaloo. The orange pegasus dozed soundly beside the rainbow mare, her hooves pawing around the soft sheets of the bed. It was quite funny how alike the two of them were when it came to sleeping habits; they both had outrageous snoring for one thing!
They had had a sleepover the previous night after Rainbow’s weekly tuition of Scootaloo in flying went on for a bit too long. It was no surprise that Scoots was still asleep; they had stayed up all night telling ghost stories and Rainbow was sure that she kept hearing uneasy shuffling from Scootaloo’s side of the bed. Of course, the purple-haired pegasus never liked admitting her fear to her brave, and might I say, audacious idol of a sister but Rainbow Dash admired her for that; the little squirt that she was.
She was about to turn back to the book when she heard the faint whistling of the mail pony, Derpy. Rainbow could always tell it was Derpy as only she whistled in the most peculiar way, changing pitch frequently while singing. Eventually, the whistling faded telling Rainbow that the grey pegasus had come and gone. Out of the blue, an idea popped into her head – to collect the paper that Derpy had left and read it to find a job. Wait…how on earth did I know that Derpy had left a newspaper without even going outside? Rainbow Dash pondered. And I already have a job. The thoughts in her mind did no good however to prevent her body from moving and the rainbow-haired pegasus soon found herself getting up from the bed and making her way towards the front door. The newspaper was in fact lying there when Rainbow ventured outside; she was astounded. I must have some psychic powers since I’m just so awesome!
Rainbow bent down to pick up the rolled up paper, undid the straps and opened it using her wings. She surveyed the job posting columns all the while thinking what possible reason she should have for wanting another job when she was perfectly happy with the job she currently had. I mean, who doesn’t like breaking clouds up while practising for the Wonderbolts? The first notice caught her eye. It read: “There’s an opening in the Entertainment Career for a Sing-a-Gram pony; Hours: 9am – 6pm; Pay: 6 bits/h.” Nah, I hate singing and I make way more on my current salary. She read on. Her eyes met the second notice down. It read: “There’s an opening in the Music Industry for a Talent Scout; Hours 8am – 2pm; Pay 8 bits/h.” Since when am I a pony who thinks others are more awesome than me? No. It seemed that was all the job listings until she spotted the final advertisement at the bottom of the page. “There’s an opening in the Science Career for a Fill-In Library Assistant; Hours 9am – 3pm; Pay 7 bits/h.” I don’t think so; I am not an egghead like Twilight.
However, as if somepony had made the decision for her, the rainbow pegasus proceeded to take the job and a letter appeared before her. The message said: “Please note that if you take this job as a Fill-In Library Assistant you won’t be able to continue being Head Weatherpony; are you sure you want to change jobs?” Pfft, of course not! Rainbow Dash confirmed her willingness to change jobs, causing the letter to disappear and a new one to replace it. “Great! A reminder will be sent at 8am tomorrow!” WHAT?!! Rainbow leaped up into the air and pumped her hooves inward in triumph. “YES!!!!” NO!!!! WHAT AM I DOING?!!! I DON’T WANT TO BE AN EGGHEAD! But…maybe…maybe it’ll be fun.
Rainbow landed back on her cloud and heard the loud snoring of her favourite fan yet again. Entering her cloudominium, she noticed that Scootaloo still showed no sign of stirring. Then another idea popped into her head and she didn’t like it one bit but as before she found herself making her way to the other side of the bed near to where Scootaloo was resting. Her expression was neutral but her mind tugged away from the idea that she was given. With a big inhale, Rainbow shouted at the top of her voice causing the sleeping filly to awake with such a startling fright that she flew directly above her resting spot and collided with the ceiling. Luckily, the walls of a Pegasus hovel were softer than your average ground-based house as they were mostly composed of a denser kind of cloud. Still, Rainbow Dash was distraught to understand why she would do something so mean to her number one fan.
The filly had floated back down by now and her face was frantic with worry but after darting her head from side to side her eyes met the chuckling sister and she shot her an annoyed look.
“Rainbow, what the hay was that for? You scared me half to death!” cried Scootaloo, still gasping from the scare she got.
Scootaloo jumped off the bed and landed across from her mentor, trying to corner the laughing pegasus to get an explanation out of her. To the filly’s surprise, the laughing ceased quite suddenly and Rainbow’s face now showed no sign of emotion. And then as if out of nowhere her anger evaporated and she had an idea.
“So, how did you sleep?” she asked Rainbow inquisitively.
“Like I always do. Awesomely,” the rainbow pegasus replied.
Scootaloo smiled in acknowledgement. But the real Scootaloo still wanted to be angry at her sister. How had her anger just gone? And what the heck was that for conversation?
She should be angry at me. Why is she so happy? And why did I not apologise straight away? It was as if Rainbow’s mind had a mind of its own and that she had lost all control over her decisions. Other than that though, the pegasus felt fine. She thought about apologizing to Scootaloo again.
“Listen, Scoots…I'm really sorry about waking you up like that. I really don’t-”
Rainbow couldn't finish her apology as her body had become completely still again. This was beyond weird. The confident pegasus was in fact scared to admit she was afraid of what was happening. Not that she couldn't really show with her face as blank as anything.
“You know sometimes I wish you weren't my sister!” exclaimed Scootaloo in a hostile tone.
What?! Of course I don’t mean that! The purple-maned filly had no explanation for why these ideas kept popping into her head. Rainbow had tried to apologize and she retaliated with aggression. And the look of Rainbow’s hurt face made her feel even worse. What kind of pony was she all of a sudden?
Neither said anything for some time and then Scootaloo spotted Rainbow Dash moving towards her. The blue pegasus brought a hoof around Scootaloo’s neck and pulled her into a warm embrace which she quickly broke out of awkwardly. As much as she welcomed the hug, her body thought otherwise and…what? I don’t like Rainbow Dash as one of my best friends anymore? Try as she did, she could no longer think of the pegasus as someone close to her now; she was still her friend but not “sisters.” That would never happen…but considering this was Rainbow Dash…she wasn't the least bit surprised.
“Poor Scootaloo,” sympathized the unicorn. “But I’ll bet Rainbow will have lots of fun in her new job!” The sunset streaked unicorn proceeded to giggle slightly.
